The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-03-03

the morning 0t the homicide between husband
and wife at the breakfast table. Mrs. Druse
left the table went into her room and re-
turned with revolver She whispered to
the boys to go out of DOORS which they did,
leaving herself, the daughter Mary and the
husband in the room. Mary threw a rope
around her fathers neck while he was at the
table, and VS. Druse fired the revolver once
or twice at .lim, wounding him and he fell
over sideways in his chair, while the MUIR
deress, being unable to make the revolver go
off again, called to the nephew, Frank, who
came in the house, together with the boy
George.
Mrs. Druse tnen gave the revolver to the
nephew, and, under a threat of killing him,
compelled him to fire it off two or three
times. The victim rolled off the chair upon
the floor, and then the infuriated woman
seized the AK and hit her husband on the head
with it, he exclaiming: ooh, Roxy, don'tIn
and she continued hitting him on the neck
until she chopped the head off She then car
ried the remains into the parior, and during
that day and evening the body was cut up
with an ak and was burned up in the stove.
She threatened to kill the boys if they told
what had occurred, burned all her husbands
Clothes and made every effort to conceal the
crime, causing the ashes in the stove where
the body had beed burned to be taken up and
thrown into swamp and the revolver and
ak to be thrown into pond, and had tele-
grams sent to friends in other places making
false and misleading inquiries as to her hus-
band, and compelled the boys to tell every
one that her husband had gone away from
and Mary were burning the body in the par
lor, the two boys were amusing themselves
by playing checkers in the adjoining room
where the murder had been committed
That William Druse made his wife and
children lead the lives of dogs there is no
manner of doubt. From his boyhood up he
was noted for his ungovernable temper, and
it is generally conceded that had the murder
not been accompanied by the horrible mutt
lation of the body, the death penalty would
never have been imposed.
William Druse seemed to be half daft In
some ways He had mania for reading
newspapers through from beginning to end.
He would walk miles to farm house where
he had heard a comparatively fresh paper
was to be seen, and long after the farmer and
his family had gone to bed, in order to puzzle
out every line and ward of the print. Itwas
the absence of 'ShiftlesS Bill Druse" that
first led to suspicion.
The neighbors knew he led his family q
miserable life, and they was quick to believe
he had been made away with Several days
elapsed before the ak with which the mutila-
ton had been committed was found 1t was
identified as Druse's ak. Then meeting of
a.. IL ...1
were subjected to an examination which
finally elected the whole story of the butch
cry. The arrest of the whole family speedily
followed, and at the trial Mary confessed the
crime, and was sentenced to life imprison-
ment. Mrs. Druse stoutly insisted that she
killed her husband in self-defense.
Mrs. Druses counsel, backed by public
sentiment averse to the execution of a
woman, made every effort to have the death
sentence commuted to life imprisonment
Mrs. Druse's case had gone through all the
courts and the Judgment of the first court
was affirmed in every case The day for ex-
ecution was originally set for December 20
last, but Governor Hill granted reprieve
in order, as he said, that the legislature
might take action looking to an amendment
Of the statutes so as to exempt women from
the death penalty. The legislature, however
by a close majority refused to pass the
amendment, and thus Mrs. Druse's fate was
sealed, as the governor positively refused to
grant a further Communication. A lunacy
commission was also appointed by the gov
ernor to investigate the case and examine the
woman, but pronounced her sane.
Mrs. Druse is the fifth woman hanged in
New York for murder. The first was Ann
Hoags, in the early part of the century; the
second was Margaret Houghtaling, alias
Peggy Dinsmore, hanged at Hudson, October
1s, 1917 for child murder; the third was Mrs.
Van Valkenberg, at Johnstown, January "a,
1876, for husband murder, and Mrs. Runkle,
at Whitesboro, in lS49